BREAKING: Simon Pegg to co-write Star Trek 3 with Doug Jung

scotty_jung

It was just confirmed by Deadline that Simon Pegg (JJ Trek’s Scotty) and Doug Jung (creator of the TNT series Dark Blue) will co-write the script for the next Star Trek film. This comes on the heals of the exit of Bob Orci and the announcement that Justin Lin (Fast and Furious 6) will take on the director’s chair for the third film in the new franchise.

Nothing has been straightforward about the pre-production of Star Trek 3. Rumors started flying early on, some being confirmed and more being generated when then writer and director Bob Orci ceremoniously left the building. Paramount has been insisting that they are dedicated to releasing a third Star Trek movie during the year of the franchise’s 50th anniversary (2016), but that is seeming less and less likely given the fact that writers for the script are only being announced now (cue more rumors!).

Even stranger is that the Pegg-Jung writing duo was apparently announced by Jung’s brother Mike via his tumblr and twitter pages two days ago, only receiving main stream media coverage today:

Pegg’s previous writing credits make us hopeful for a well-written Trek script. With Edgar Wright, he penned the Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End (the Cornetto trilogy), as well as Run Fatboy Run. Doug Jung is known for his TV scripts, including those for a series that he created, Dark Blue.

 


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Really?

Here we go again around and around this is beginning to sound like a soap opera. All my best I hope we get a good script.

More exploration, character development, and humanism. Let action, comedy, and Keenser take a back seat, please.

Wow, wait! How come, that it is assumed that a 2016 release doesn’t sound likely? I thought they wanted to start shootin in April?

Amazeballs!!!!!!!!!!!”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still wish Nick Meyer (TREK Script Doctor) could help out. I see he is busy Directing a movie for 2015.

And the drama continues!

Repost—

Pegg is an excellent writer when it come to comedy. “Shaun Of The Dead” is one of my favorite horror comedy but I’m not sure if he can do serious movies, perhaps that is why they hired Jung to co-write the movie with him?

As for Jung, I’ve never heard of the guy before, but from Fleming’s report, it seems that Paramount/BR were impressed with one of his scripts “Diamond”.

And it looks like things are still not clear as this line from his report indicate “Will tell you more when it becomes clear.”

Funny fact from the Deadline article: Jung’s repped by UTA, Circle Of Confusion and Adam Kaller. It sure looks like we are in Circle Of Confusion :)

So boborci et al are totally out? Will bad robot be involved at all? Bending of space time indeed.

8. Syvok – January 21, 2015

Good questions!

Well let’s see what happens now. Will we get a real Star Trek script or just an outer space fast and furious. I hope Simon Pegg and do it and do it right.

At least at twitter the reactions are 99 percent positive about the news.

Yes. I posted it here a couple of days ago and chatted with Mike Jung on twitter.
Simon Pegg co-writing? Cool

So, boborci, you want to weigh in on this for us, please? This came from waaaay out of left field, it seems. Not that I have a problem with Simon, per se – he’s great with what he does and I love his work – but it kinda seems like he’s leaving the Dallas Cowboys to go play for the New York Yankees, if you get my pro inter-sport inference.

It don’t look like it will make a 2016 release date, I just wish they would make up there minds. why don’t we all just wait for JJ abrams to come back next year and bob orci and simon pegg can do the writing.

12. Ralph Pinheiro

Correct, you were the first! :)

14. Martin – January 21, 2015

” … why don’t we all just wait for JJ abrams to come back next year and bob orci and simon pegg can do the writing.”

Second that.

Seems contrary to the July 2016 release… more info needed

Jeez, how long will this combo last? 2 months? How long until they announce the inevitable delay?

In the real world, people get fired for this sort of institutionalized incompetence.

Pegg is indeed an inspired choice, but aren’t we just sick of seeing the endless revolving door? When they bring in Lindelof to “touch up” the script, all bets are off.

Feel free to take ANY of the ideas off of this site.

Why is there an assumption that this is going to delay a 7/16 release? We have no idea how long they have been at it, but I’d assume that if shooting is a go for April in Vancouver that they know what their deadlines are.

Fret not….

@ 8. Syvok – January 21, 2015

“So boborci et al are totally out? Will bad robot be involved at all? Bending of space time indeed.”

I think it is clear that Orci, P & M are not writing this movie anymore & that the 2nd draft was rejected as well.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Orci “departed the project”, and AICN is saying that “the writer/producer completely parted ways with this project.”

BR is still involved as the Deadline report says.

Well, Hot Damn!

And the internet is really digging this news!

Why can’t the studio announce it properly?

Every single studio announces things properly… Paramount seems to mis-manage Trek at every turn. Not that I’m saying the choices are bad… I’m just saying they suck at PR when it comes to Star Trek. They need a better manager of Trek…. The producers need to step up their game at least.

If they are serious about getting this film out for 2016 (shooting starts April 15th) isn’t it likely that they kept the bones of Orci’s script?

My goodness, an outright train wreck. No more Trek films, bring it back to Television PLEASE.

Will Kirk and Scotty jump a fence?

This is very welcome news!

Things seem very chaotic with the next Star Trek film, which concerns me. If they don’t have a movie out in 2016 for the 50th anniversary because they can’t get it together, that would be a travesty. It’s not like they don’t have enough time. There was a time when 2 to 3 years was common for Star Trek films.

What is going on right now? Is it Paramount? Is it Bad Robot. Is it that they have too many chiefs in the Kitchen. I mean, during the Berman years, love him or hate him, at least you knew who was running the show. (And For the haters, at least you knew who to blame). Even the last 2 movies, Abrams was more or less the one in charge, but I think now he seems to have taken a back seat.

Right now I have no idea who’s running Star Trek. Is Bob Orci even involved, how involved is Abrams now, how about Bryan Burk. At this point, the only ones we know for sure that are involved are the actors. Someone there needs to take charge, it doesn’t have to be a director necessarily, but someone who can take over and put all the pieces together because right now there’s chaos, and that’s never good.

Until next week…

They would already have started shooting most likely, had the powers that be not flaked out on the first writers and director. None of this is good news, except maybe Pegg writing the script, that has potential. But the new director, and all of these delays, and script changes? I’m very concerned about this film now, and so are many others… the future is not certain. But overall, bad news, not good news. 50th Anniversary release date? Doubtful! So frustrating.

on memory alpha, there’s a new update that on april 15, they’ll start shooting in vancouver.. um what to believe?

There’s still the possibility that they’re not writing the entire film from scratch and story elements are still being used from the previous script. Also, we don’t know how far along they are in the writing process, which means they could still have the thing finished in time for an April shoot.

No way Paramount passes up the cash cow that is the 50th anniversary. Granted Skyfall was a fun movie, but Sony absolutely raked on Bond’s 50th anniversary in 2012 and Paramount has to see big dollar signs for Star Trek’s 50th.

30–I just checked that out on Memory Alpha. I believe that’s on older report from September (I’m reading it under the Star Trek XIII article). I believe that will probably need to be adjusted with a totally new story and director (and considering a new story may be filmed in a completely different locale). They’ll note it there once there’s something new to report (they usually get updates fast–they already have today’s news about the writing team on there)

31. Damian – January 21, 2015

Yesterday the news emerged of a April, 15th shooting start in Vancouver.

Regarding the April shooting date:

This new rumor is based on a tweet from @lemon_buzz:

“@lemon_buzz: Star Trek 3 has an official start date of April 15th using Vancouver Film Studios @olv #yvrshoots”

Just FIVE days ago, @lemon_buzz tweeted these:

“Star Trek 3 delayed filming until June so Justin Lin can prepare #yvrshoots @olv”

“@NBS2010 @PUNKD_Images @olv Nope. Star Trek has a June start date now. Dead pool is March”

Since mid January, rumors from Vancouver based sites gave three conflicted dates, first it was March, then June & now April!

The most current Production List from “Directors Guild of Canada, BC District Council” didn’t list Star Trek yet.

33. Ahmed

ok, thanks

I’m a bit hopeful about Pegg writing as he’s a Trek fan too and maybe could have more control over his character and how he’s utilized… But as for everything else? Looks like a mess. If they’ve got a first draft already, MAYBE they can get things going by April. But considering it’s Paramount, they’ll probably ask for several rewrites, take forever to greenlight it, and delay production past April. Even if everything went amazingly right, that’s rather quick to go from writing to shooting by then. :/

It could still be based on a story by Orci, Payne, and McKay.

What a mess. So much for Bob’s second script. I guess this explains his meltdown on this forum a few weeks ago.

So….how do these writers feel about William Shatner?

Don’t tell me this makes Star Trek 3 a comedy….

You know what?

Less Keenser, less comedy, less too emotional Vulcans, less beligerant aliens.

More to bodly go, more Roddenberry, much more McCoy,more racial and ethnic diversity.

And for all that is holy in the universe, rank stripes in the women’s uniforms, but no girl in her underwear.

That is all.

Time is not THAT tight yet.

Look at the writing history on TWOK. Better part of a year to get 4 or 5 unusable scripts with interesting elements. Meyer comes in, what, later summer 1981, does the script in less than 2 weeks, does a few punchups of that to make all the cast happy, and they’re shooting in November and the movie is in theaters in June 82. And that is back when it took real time to get OPTICAL effects done in the lab, and they had to start making 70mm prints in April (doing the first reels, waiting till the end to do the last one due to May changes) in order to have everything ready by June.

That’s a LOT less time than they’re talking here. It can be done, just not with an extended post.

Congratulations to the new writing team.
Way to go Simon!

The nightmare keeps getting worse.

Fantastic News!!!

@3. Michael Stivic

no thanks. I want comedy and action!

I hate to say this but it’s looking like Trek 3 is doomed, it’s just more bad news after another. First we get a director that’s not even that experienced and probably has no idea of what Star Trek is about, and now we get two people who aren’t even good or experienced screenwriters. Can things possibly get any worse?

Wait, what?

I loved “Hot Fuzz’. It was smart, clever. The editing, the humor, the relationships. It was my first exposure to Simon Pegg. I really liked him in it. (It was my first exposure to Edgar Wright. I was excited to see his take on Ant Man because of it. Oh well)

But again, wait, what?

Encouraged by this (old) quote from Pegg: “Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. It’s basically a license to proudly emote on a somewhat childish level rather than behave like a supposed adult. Being a geek is extremely liberating.”

Wonder if its based on anything by Orci and co or if they are doing an entirely new script?

This is good news!

Simon Pegg grew up watching Star Trek and understands the series.

It’s almost like one of us fans here got to make the movie.

Suh-weet!

I hate to peg this, but they’ve dug their own grave.